Ramadan disrupts all our routines and gently imposes its own schedule… We wake up in the middle of the night and try to eat something, our eyes barely open. Drowsiness takes over in the middle of the day, and we succumb to naps at random places and times. Our dinner time depends not on the clock, but on the sunset.
We suddenly become unable to watch movies like we usually do, and we can’t bring ourselves to read just any book; we feel the pull of the Quran. The type of music we listen to changes. People who usually dominate conversations all of a sudden become quiet. Thanks to Ramadan, we understand that when one eats little, one speaks little as well. In the rush to make it to all the suhoors and taraweehs we sleep little; thus we see that the three conditions necessary to tame and perfect the soul (eat little, speak little, and sleep little) are slowly being fulfilled on their own.
The traffic goes out of control close to iftaar time, but as soon as the time to break the fast comes, the sound that dominates the streets is the rattle of dishes and cutlery that overflows from the open windows into the air. Even though I can’t quite wrap my mind around the idea, I even respect the long pide (a special type of bread eaten specifically during Ramadan in Turkey) lines in front of the bakeries, only because they are special to Ramadan. Oh Ramadan, we each love you in a unique way; we ask that you bear witness in favor of us in front of our Lord on the day this love will inshAllah bear fruit.
